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Sen. Ted Kennedy dies at 77

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The 2008 Republican presidential candidate suggested during his radio show, "The Huckabee Report," on Thursday that, under President Obama's health care plan, Kennedy would have been told to "go home to take pain pills and die" during his last year of life.
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As it happens, Huckabee made his remarks shortly after he derided Democrats for using Kennedy's death to make the pitch that "Congress must hurry and pass the health care reform bill and do it in his memory,"

My favorite part of this is of course that if Kennedy weren't you know, a Senator or someone similarly powerful (like a Kennedy), that would have been his treatment under the current system.

Actually, from what I've read that basically was his treatment. He had a glioblastoma, which has a median life expectancy prognosis of about 15 months. Sure, he had the best care available, but this is a kind of particularly nasty cancer that has so far not had much success as far as treatment goes.

There really isn't much else that can be done other than managing the pain and symptoms, from what I've read.

Eh, he had access to aggressive treatments, though they don't do much about this particular kind of tumor thus far.

I think ignorant, and too lazy and stubborn to fix that ignorance, would be a good way to describe us.

Lazy really is the wrong terms, Americans tend to work pretty hard. I'm not sure what the right term is, but alot of the righties are locked in little cognitive feedback loops that refuse to accept reality.

I'd love for some psychologist to analyze the right as a whole, I mean it's groupthink 101, but there's more to it than that.

Intellectually apathetic, maybe? People get to a point where they have a little bit of information about something and they figure that's all they need. They aren't interested in informing themselves any further.

People also develop a trust for specific people or sources that makes them extra super gullible to anything those sources might spew out. See; Fair and Balanced.

See; your arrogance.

Do you really want to jump to the defense of Fox News?

You should defend your sense of superiority over those who have a different opinion.

This has nothing to do with their opinions. It's purely about the legitimacy of single-source news.

How do you know Americans in general are using a single source for news?

I think ignorant, and too lazy and stubborn to fix that ignorance, would be a good way to describe us.

Lazy really is the wrong terms, Americans tend to work pretty hard. I'm not sure what the right term is, but alot of the righties are locked in little cognitive feedback loops that refuse to accept reality.

I'd love for some psychologist to analyze the right as a whole, I mean it's groupthink 101, but there's more to it than that.

Intellectually apathetic, maybe? People get to a point where they have a little bit of information about something and they figure that's all they need. They aren't interested in informing themselves any further.

People also develop a trust for specific people or sources that makes them extra super gullible to anything those sources might spew out. See; Fair and Balanced.

See; your arrogance.

Do you really want to jump to the defense of Fox News?

You should defend your sense of superiority over those who have a different opinion.

This has nothing to do with their opinions. It's purely about the legitimacy of single-source news.

How do you know Americans in general are using a single source for news?

Who said anything about "American in general?" I'm talking about the people who watch one channel or visit one website or even those that frequent multiple sources with the same slant without stepping back to look at the issues objectively.

They are, unfortunately, a fairly large chunk of the public in general. Polling on things like Death Panels and Obama's Citizenship would put it at about 30% of the population subsisting on non-objective news.

How do you know Americans in general are using a single source for news?

Pew Research Center. Though it is thankfully not a majority of people, the amount of time people spend on the news and where they spend it is rather saddening. TV sucks for news, except for MacNeil/Lehrer, and even that is pretty bad when compared to other formats more amenable to long form storytelling and analysis.

Kennedys, Clintons and the Bushes. Makes me wonder how long before we see a brand new political dynasty?

By definition that would be a generation. Also, it ignores a hell of a lot of political dynasties that are relatively weak. Politics tends to be a family business. That they don't necessarily get to the pinnacles of power don't make them any less real.

The President's eulogy was good. Ted Jr's (the non-Congressman) was great.

Will right wing radio talk shows have the dignity not to bash the eulogies on Monday?

They didn't have the dignity not to start talking trash days after he passed away. I am not certain what they will bash about the eulogies since they all seem non-political but instead just statements about a man who served his country.

I have only heard parts of Ted Jr's but I hear it was the most moving of all of them.

They're going to say it was just like Wellstone's funeral, regardless of the fact that Wellstone's funeral wasn't like Wellstone's funeral. And God knows Reagan/Ford's death weren't treated as momentous political occasions by the right.

The 2008 Republican presidential candidate suggested during his radio show, "The Huckabee Report," on Thursday that, under President Obama's health care plan, Kennedy would have been told to "go home to take pain pills and die" during his last year of life.
...
As it happens, Huckabee made his remarks shortly after he derided Democrats for using Kennedy's death to make the pitch that "Congress must hurry and pass the health care reform bill and do it in his memory,"

This is the kind of thing an internet troll would say. A political commentator should refrain from that kind of shit.

Also, Karl Rove's bullshit was in bad taste too. When your political opponent dies, you don't continue arguing against their political stances or career.

The 2008 Republican presidential candidate suggested during his radio show, "The Huckabee Report," on Thursday that, under President Obama's health care plan, Kennedy would have been told to "go home to take pain pills and die" during his last year of life.
...
As it happens, Huckabee made his remarks shortly after he derided Democrats for using Kennedy's death to make the pitch that "Congress must hurry and pass the health care reform bill and do it in his memory,"

This is the kind of thing an internet troll would say. A political commentator should refrain from that kind of shit.

Also, Karl Rove's bullshit was in bad taste too. When your political opponent dies, you don't continue arguing against their political stances or career.

One should not speak ill of the dead (at least, not the recently dead) but neither should one be a hagiographer.

I get mad when people are disrespectful toward Ted Kennedy but I know that I've done some serious gravedancing of my own in the past (Falwell springs to mind). I justify this to myself by noting that Kennedy was a good person and Falwell was terrible, but I know that other people feel the opposite. So.

One should not speak ill of the dead (at least, not the recently dead) but neither should one be a hagiographer.

I get mad when people are disrespectful toward Ted Kennedy but I know that I've done some serious gravedancing of my own in the past (Falwell springs to mind). I justify this to myself by noting that Kennedy was a good person and Falwell was terrible, but I know that other people feel the opposite. So.

To be fair, Kennedy never actively peddled hate to advance his career, unlike the other two examples.

I didn't. Jerry Falwell was a huge fucking bigot, and the world was a better place without him in it.

Ted Kennedy wasn't. Regardless of which side of the aisle you fell on, Ted Kennedy wasn't a bigot, didn't support bigoted causes, and was a better man than Jerry Falwell could ever dream of being. The world is a worse place for his passing. That's the difference.

Well, remember that Chappaquiddick, at the end of the day, did result in a death, so to see that invoked in Kennedy gravedancing does at least have merit to it. Devil's advocate and all.

And I can't claim wholesome purity either, and I can't even claim to have limited myself to political figures. I've done it twice with baseball team owners- Marge Schott and Carl Pohlad.

I have the feeling that when conservatives dance on Kennedy's grave, it's not really out of a deep-seated concern for the life of Mary Jo Kopechne. Meanwhile when I say that I am glad Jerry Falwell is dead because he was a bigot who worked tirelessly to make my life miserable, I mean it completely. So there's not that much merit to what the Chappaquiddick howlers say.

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